Rise from the Ashes
Characters: Loners: Willow F (51 moons) Rain's Shadow M (25 moons) Withering Mist F (4 moon) Small Flame M (4 moon) Dying Cinders M (4 moon) P r o l o g u e: w i l l o w 'Willow! You can do this.' A small voice in my head said. My stomach heaved with my new kits. 'Oh my kits. Just survive this last snowstorm, I promise.' The snowstorm was worse than ever and it was even worse because of my tiny kits. They had become a wiggling worm for the last few days. A blast of icy wind greeted me as I moved down the slippery slope. Rain's Shadow was next to me, but his compliments are nothing to me but some dung. He doesn't know how it feels like to be me right now. "You can do this Willow! Just a few more steps then you are almost at the beginning of the forest! Then you can give birth to the wonderful kits I will know you will have…" Rain's Shadow babbled on and on while I glanced at the endless valley below me. It was impossible. The sheets of ice clung on to me like burrs on my pelt. My paws were… no. I can't even feel them. Rain's Shadow talked on and on while I struggled in the wind. I promised Starling I would meet him there with my chattering nephew but I knew that was just one promise I couldn't make. I collapsed on the rocky slope, my stomach hurting more than ever. This was the place my kits would be born. Then my stomach dropped into a dizzying black. A small jerk of pain woke me. It was my kits. I didn't imagine I was even alive. The pebbles that stuck to my aching back felt more like needles than pebbles. Rain wasn't here. No one was. Obviously they abandoned me. They didn't need a small withering pregnant she cat. Another thing caught my mind. A agile but muscular ink jet black she cat with shining stars on her pelt. Is it stars? I really didn't care though. The quiet she cat walked briskly towards me, seeing that I was awake. "Hello, tired one. Your kits are coming. I am Dancing Stars by the way. Sorry if I disturbed you but I can't leave a hurt one dying," she said, in a more of a commanding type of voice. "Another fine fellow, I think his name was… Chatter Box? Fox Dung? No… it was Rain's Shadow, who went down the valley, searching for a tom named Starling. I suppose he is your mate? He wanted to let him know you were kitting. He was foolish, alas, to leave you alone," she continued, dryly. Another jolt of pain surged though me. I tried not to flinch at the pain. Dancing Stars did not continue her talking; she brought me only some moss and a stick. My temper already grouchy from the pains, I blurted out, "Why did you only gimme moss and a stick?! Fox dung. I thought there will be a special herb type thing for me?!?! You are the lousiest thing in the world. Yes, thing. I don't even consider you a cat!" I rambled on and on until she shushed me. By then, I was feeling like the Dancing Stars thing was trying to kill me. Why else would she give me a stick? Is that a magical wand or something? I afraid so, it was not. "You are a first timer, aren't you. Kitting is the most natural thing in the world. As long as you have enough strength, you will be able to withstand the pains of kitting," Dancing Stars said very patiently, like instructing a kit to hunt. The stick in my mouth broke as my first wave of a new type of pain settled in me. I knew pain. I withstood many pains, from a broken leg (which I still have a very slight limp from.) to a long ragged scar on my flank from an infected scratch. But this was in a whole new level. My breath literally blew off as my first kit started slithering through. I can't tell you how bad I felt. It was worse than I ever felt. You wouldn't be able to feel the same level as pain as I did. But I had three healthy kits after what it seemed like moons. Dancing Stars was next to me the entire time, guiding me to the progress and letting me relax. She is a natural healer. By the time we were done, Rain and Starling was next to me, soothing me. I had three kits, a blackish blue kit like Starling, and two russety colored kits. The blackish blue one was small and withering; she was the runt. "Let's name her Withering Mist." Starling agreed. I wanted to name a flame colored kit after my sister, Blue Flame. She died hence her namesake; she died in a wildfire, seventeen moons ago. "Let's name that tom, Small Flame." Starling wanted to name him Red Sparrow because of the reddish and black spots on him that made him look like a Red Sparrow. "Name it Small Flame. Do you remember Blue Flame? Or did you forgot about my sister? My only littermate?" I demanded. "Is your sister that important? Why can't I name a kit? They are mine as well," Starling said in sort of a snarling way. "I don't care what you name it. We will no longer be mates, Starling. I want my sister to be here, that is why I want his name to be similar to hers," I choked. I couldn't believe I was breaking up with Starling, the only one who I trusted. "Let's go, Rain's Shadow. We got to go," I muttered. Starling and I parted ways after that. I never saw him again. We walked on into an endless path of rocky cliffs. It was harder with the kits. Withering Mist always kept complaining about something. The blackish red tom was tugging on to me like burrs. I wasn't sure what to name the last kit. The russety fur. The amber flickering eyes that were watchful. He was the youngest, but he looked like the oldest to me. After two hours or so, we stopped for some freshkill and hunted. This time, Rain's Shadow hunted. I stayed with the kits. Then, out of nowhere, Dancing Stars popped out. I saw her black pelt slithering out of a bush. "Hello, Willow. I watched you the entire time. It is time for you to name the kits." I nodded nervously. "Name it what you want to name it. Name it Fox-Dung if you think that is right. Follow your instinct, Willow. I will see you later." Dancing Stars disappeared, then Rain's Shadow arrived. "I have the names for the kits. This one is Small Flame. That one is Dying Cinders." c h a p t e r o n e : w i t h e r i n g m i s t It is my first day out! I am so so excited! Willow, my very overprotective mother, finally said we could go out the burrow! Nothing to see though. Well, there is mountains of rocks and a Twolegplace near the please where the burrow was. Small Flame and Dying Cinders are next to me. Their names are sorta fiery type; mine is sorta like water. Mist… water? Do you get it? "Can we go to the Twolegplace? Please please please please please!" I asked desperately at Rain's Shadow. I thought he was my father at first but he isn't. They won't reveal who my father is. I mean, my father might be a kittypet! Those rotten thugs. They only eat those pellets that taste like nothing. How do I know? Pssst… don't tell but I went to a old cat named Davis and he gave me some pellets. Willow would freak out if I did. But that was 2 moons ago. I am 4 moons now. "No. Willow specifically said that we are going to go that forest. I am going to teach you how to hunt. This is a learning session, not a trip to the Twolegplace," Rain's Shadow said, flatly. Small Flame and Dying Cinders nodded, like owls. Their eyes became so big! The forest is like a billion fox lengths away. Just kidding. But it is sorta far from here. "Are we going to pounce on mice and shred it into pieces?" I wondered out loud. I like shredding things. Like leaves. "Can we fight the kittypets?" Small Flame asked. He seemed to be more hostile to the kittypets these days. I mean, kittypets are bad but I don't want to be shredding Davis. "No and no. If you shred the mice, there won't be any to eat. And no, Small Flame, why would you harm them if they didn't do anything to you?" Rain answered, impatiently. "We are going to hunt something easy. Mice. You need to be quiet. Stalk it like… this." Rain's Shadow looked funny. His butt was in the air, but I couldn't hear him walk. I snickered. Rain was really serious and it was rare to see him do something funny. "Stop laughing, Withering Mist! You too, Small Flame!" Rain shouted. "You try stomping in the forest with the laughter you have. Try catching some decent prey without tumbling in the brambles!" The rest of the day was boring. Plain flat face boring. Rain nearly tore Small Flame in half after he tried to attack the kittypets. I nearly got the stalk correct. I got a mouse too! Nice and plump. Small Flame didn't get anything but Dying Cinders was impressive. Three mice! I mean, three mice! Rain got a squirrel and two mice. We had a decent meal that night. Willow was impressed by Dying Cinder's stalking. After we ate the meal (and I ate that mouse I caught), Willow immediately told us we need to go to sleep. I sleep in the corner of the burrow, the place with the mix match moss. Dying Cinders slept in the pile of moss that is the cleanest and Small Flame slept in the shredded moss. He keeps on pretending that the moss is the kittypets. I usually pretended to sleep, so I could hear what Rain and Willow was talking about. That usually never works. But today, I got some news. "You changed greatly, nephew. I remembered when I was pregnant and you were this chatterbox," Willow was saying. "Time made us all change, Willow. You changed. Or do you feel like the cat who gave birth to the kits?" Rain replied. "But why am I here? I usually sleep in the burrow next door." Willow's voice dropped. "The prophecy. Remember Dancing Stars? She is a spirit of a cat, who lived on this world, long ago." Rain's voice dropped even lower. "The prophecy. I think it is them." I knew who he was talking about. Me and my brothers. Willow replied softly, "Three cats would rise from the ashes, One of water, two of fire, One would die from it's clashes, The other two would hold the fate, the fate of the world in their paws." c h a p t e r t w o : d y i n g c i n d e r s The following stuff is going to be very boring. The next few days, Rain's Shadow was like our "mentor" and we are his apprentices. Withering Mist always, always want to go anywhere new. After the day of hunting, we explored the Twolegplace. The day after we explored it, she wanted to explore the river. She is impossible to control. I don't know how Willow manages with her anyways. Small Flame is more quiet but he likes to kill kittypets, as I observed. Kittypet this, kittypet that. Once, I tried shutting him up by stuffing deathberries in his vole. But Small Flame saw something weird in it and we tossed it into this thing called the trash can. Rain was a kittypet for the first 7 moons of his life. That is how we know about it. And guess who ate the vole in the trash can? A old old kittypet named Davis. Withering Mist cried when she saw Davis, dead. I would never understand her. When we hunted all day long, Willow took care of our ditch. No, ditches. Rain's Shadow sleeps in the burrow next door 'cause he says it is too small for him. And I agree. Rain's Shadow is big. One of the litter stays with Willow and freshen the bedding and fix any problems with the ditch. That job is one of the most boring jobs in the world. After you fix any mistakes and the hunting party still didn't come, you fish. Small Flame is excellent at it. I mess up every try. I am very impatient for the fish to come in the river. And guess what? Today is my day to stay home with Willow. She is way too overprotective. I mean, she never lets me or any of my siblings to go out and do stuff without Willow or Rain. If I need to make dirt, she asks Rain to come with me. So when I woke up, I saw Withering Mist's head hovering above mine. Her silverish blue body is the smallest of all the five bodies in our "clan". She is the runt. "Time to get up, brother! Your turn to be stuck with Willow. Poor you," she sarcastically said. A growled formed in my throat. I never had a good relationship with Mist. With Flame, maybe, other than that time I stuffed deathberries in his prey. "Fine. Aren't you supposed to be with Rain? I thought you were going to hunt? Or maybe you want to switch jobs?" I muttered under my breath. I rose up, my moss clinging to my neck. It was getting hotter and hotter every day. Willow says this is green-leaf, whatever that is. Rain already left with the two pesty siblings. It was only me and Willow. "Cinder, grab some moss near the old oak tree, back there." Willow was already ordering me around, even though my mind was still groggy. This was going to be a long day. The entire day was fetching moss, getting reeds and pebbles, and fetching this and that. Finally, the torture was over. "Can I hunt?" I asked, my voice becoming more excited. "No. Fishing. We might find a trout or two, to add to the pile," Willow commanded. "Time to fish in the river." I groaned. I tried to make my shadow away from the river but it was too late. All the fish had seen me. My splashing scared away any oblivious fish. "Fox dung," I muttered. A minnow flashed by. Claws unsheathing, paws flailing, I reached into the pool, desperately trying to get my second fish. My first fish was purely an accident. I fell in the water and squashed a fish. And I failed. Willow looked frustrated and walking away towards downstream, she shouted over the roar of the river, "I am going downstream for better fish. You scared them all." I sighed. But that was a second before I realized that this was a rare event. Willow never let's me be alone. I walked, practicing my stalk until I heard a shout. A scream. A yell. Then something that only one person could make. "Dying Cinders! Help!" c h a p t e r t h r e e : d y i n g c ι n d e r s I ran. Withering Mist's shout filled the air. I ran. My chest heaving, my heart beat thundering, I used up my last bit of strength to go faster, downstream. "Help!" My feet hit the ground. Time slowed down. My feet pounded the ground, every step. When I got downstream, I expected an entire army of cats. But no. Only seven cats were there, four was my siblings and my family. The unfamiliar cats glanced warily at me. "Hardly a challenge. They are just skin and bones," a tall light brown tabby muttered. "Hush, Pine," a smaller but leaner dark gray tom mewed. "But they were trespassing in our territory!" Pine exclaimed. "They weren't causing any trouble. They most likely have no idea what territories are," the third cat, a silver she cat, said with a hint of wariness in her voice. Suddenly, Rain interrupted the silver cat. "I think I know what territories are, whatever your name is. I lived in a place with territories. Somewhere called WindClan for 5 moons. Then when WindClan didn't accept me anymore, I left and lived with my aunt." Rain pointed to Willow. I remembered that story, vaguely. When I was only one moon old Rain told me that he was born as a kittypet for 7 moons. Then he discovered a clan called WindClan with four clans, ThunderClan who was the sassiest, ShadowClan who attacks for no reason, and RiverClan who eats rotten fish. He left when they teased him too much, no matter how much the leader, Owl something said. He left to live with Willow. "What is your name?" Willow asked. "Why should you know? There isn't any purpose anyways," Pine snarled aggressively. "Don't listen to Pine. My name is Kestrel," the dark gray tom said. "I am Little Deer," the silver tabby said, flatly. "And you know who that tabby is," she continued, her eyes blazing for a second. "That is Pine." Small Flame walked up to me, saying, "Pine is a hothead." The wind blew in my ears. There was a distant sunrise, far far away. Greenleaf seemed to be over. It seemed like Leaf fall. "I know," I replied. "We better get going," Kestrel said hastily. "The camp is waiting for us and our fresh kill. Nice meeting you." Then Kestrel, Little Deer, and Pine walked away, swimming through the river and walking away towards the forest. "Well that was quick," Rain said. "Why did you scream help, Withering Mist?" I asked. "Well, they were so so big! I mean, so so big! They were the biggest things I ever seen! Especially that Pine cat," Withering Mist excitedly said. It wasn't true. Pine was easily the size of Rain's Shadow. Little Deer was a little taller than us. Kestrel was a tad shorter than Rain. "What did you get today?" Willow asked Rain. "Two mice. Worst catch ever," Rain replied disappointed. "Seems like Leaf bare already." "I hope it isn't severe as last year's leaf bare," Withering Mist piped in. "Wait until you realize how harsh the leaf bare was 4 moons ago. You won't remember it. You were born in a snowstorm, y'know," Rain answered. "Time to go home," Small Flame suddenly said. "Time to go home," I echoed. "Well, since Cinder doesn't like fish, he could have the mice. You too, Small Flame. The rest of us can share two trouts," Willow said briskly. "Why do I have to get the fish? I mean, why can't Small Flame have it? It isn't fair!" Withering Mist wailed. I sighed. I thought about the cats. Pine, Little Deer, and Kestrel. Why were they doing there? Are they like WindClan, ThunderClan, and all the other clans? Kestrel seems like the leader. Maybe his name is Kestrelstar. And Little Deer is called Littledeer and Pine is Pinesomething. Maybe Pineclaw. That suites him well. For the next few days, I was distracted. Very. I lost seven mice, four squirrels, and a hare than ran over my toes. My punishment was to be with Willow for a week. But I kept on think about the cats. I liked Kestrel and Little Deer. Pine might be too much aggressive. But they seem like family other than the fact that I met them for three seconds. I wanted to go there, where they went. I wanted to go to the forest. I don't care if they lived in the mountains. I felt like I belonged with them. One night, a half moon after the encounter, a small shadow appeared in the den. Willow was outside, picking some common herbs for Leaf Bare. Rain was snoring next doors. My littermates were asleep. "Hello. I am Hollyleaf. I have many names, the ones that landed here called me Dancing Stars. But when I lived with the clans, I was Hollyleaf." Clans? Oh, she meant RiverClan and blah blah Clan. "When Rain told me a story about you, he called you aggressive and sharp tongued," I managed to stutter out. "Sharp tongued? Well, I could be sharp tongued. I had a bad life… But the reason why I am here isn't to talk about me. You are important Dying Cinders. StarCl- I mean your ancestors can see it. You are the heart of the flame. You must rise from the ashes." I have no idea what she was talking about. What is StarCl? Maybe she was talking about StarClan. I only heard about four clans, not five. Whatever StarCl was, Hollyleaf or Dancing Stars or whatever her name was started talking again. "You are important. Follow your heart. Follow your heart…" She faded away, like her words. Only the echo of it ringed in my ears. Rise from the ashes? What was that suppose to mean? I am not important. I mean, I can't even catch a fish! And what does she mean by following my heart? Does that mean that I must literally follow it? Or just follow what I wish? Questions flew around my head. I had a million questions on the tip of my tongue. Who was this Hollyleaf or Dancing Stars cat? Is she bad? Or good? But she had one message for me. I must follow my heart. c h a p t e r f o u r : s m a l l f l a m e Hello. I am Small Flame. I guess I will start this by saying this. Don't believe the rumors they say. I know what they say. They might be thinking "Oh look! He isn't looking! I could say that he is a of curse words!" But I know what they say. Bloodthirsty. Monster. Kittypet destroyer which eats kittypets for fun. (I heard Mist say that.) But just because she said that doesn't mean I am one. I despise them. Yes. Maybe I like a few, (only that really awesome kittypet named Lego. Don't ask me what his name is. I have no idea wht Lego is.) but most are lazy. Lego visits the forest, tears off his collar, and actually hunts. He is a pretty cool cat. Only two moons older than me. The day when we first hunted in the forest, I guess I was crazy. I mean, there was this lazy cat (which Mist identifies as Davis) who was eating a mouse and some dried pellets! Why can't he stick with twoleg stuff? Food is scarce already. We don't need kittypets prying into our stuff. Being a wild cat isn't easy. We hunt. (But I fish) We fend off badgers and foxes. One almost killed Willow until Rain jumped over and sliced his neck. Kittypets have Twolegs to protect them. They are pets. We aren't. They are comfortable. We are in Mother Nature. Good stuffs about being wild is that you can explore anywhere and everywhere. Bad part is that the entire nature turns against you. Nature is a battle. All cats should be fighting it. Only kittypets have an extra shield to protect them. A few days after Cinder's realese of torture, it was my turn to stay with Willow. I dreaded it. I hated it. Why? I dunno. It is so boring though. Fetching moss is the boringest. Ugh. Cinder was very slacky these days. He never gets into trouble. He never puts thorns in our nests, give us damp moss, or forgets to fix a drip in the burrow. But he is distracted. Very. I think it is about the cats we met. They were goodish. Pine was a little aggressive. So one day, I was walking towards the old mossy oak to gather moss. Boring! Willow was next to me. We gathered a little to bring home. Willow needed some for wounding our wounds. But when we got home, I had a sudden desire to go to Kestrel. I was so curious. I went to one cat I could speak too. Dying Cinders. "Cinders? Come!" It was night, three days after the moss hunting expedition. The wet damp air clung into my pelt. The weather is changing these days. One day it is cold, another it is humid and sticky. "Come out! Go through out the back door. We can't let Willow see us! Or Rain! Or Withering Mist!" I whispered. Dying Cunders was awake,fully. "What?" he muttered. He walked out the back door with me. "I want to go to Kestrel. Please! I want to. I want to. Can you come with me? If you don't… I will kill you right now and go to him myself," I threatened. I never intended to make it sound like a threat (wanted to be more persuasive) but it was harsh and unforgiving. "I wanted to go ever since I met them. I will go with you," Cinder growled. "No reason for a threat, brother." "I think he lives in the forest." "Yeah." "So what?" "Hunt." "Then what?" "You decide, Cinder." "Find them, I guess." "When we find them, we… ask them if we could join them." "Before we go… I need to tell you, Small Flame. Something. A spirit of the dead visited me." I was instantly interested. A spirit visited him? How? And most importantly, why? "Her name was Dancing Stars, or Hollyleaf. She told me…" c h a p t e r f i v e : w i t h e r i n g m i s t When I woke up, I instantly realized there wasn't a warm body next to mine. No orange pelt. Nothing. I am usually the latest to rise so I thought immediately that they must be hunting. "Willow! Where are Flame and Cinder?" I asked. Willow looked frightened. "Oh! I didn't realize… Oh man. I will go to Rain's Shadow and see if they are hunting. If they aren't… I can't loose them after Starling…" Who was Starling? Willow rushed out of the den. It seemed emptier. A lot. I saw in the fresh kill pile some left over shrew. A shrew. A shrew. It looked like it was stampeded. Tiny steps on it. Looks like Small Flame's foot prints. Willow came back, looking flushed. "Rain never saw them ever since last night. What happened?" My heart thundered. My breath slowed. My brothers. I may hate them but they are family. My family. I would kill myself if it was to bring them home. "Withering Mist! Come over here!" Today was my day to help Willow but Willow wanted to stay home. I liked being outside. Not necessarily the woods. I like the wind in my paws. I am free! No forest to block me. I ran towards Rain. "What?" I asked. "I saw a vole's nest over there." He pointed towards the open moor. "You are the swiftest. Use what I had taught you over the past moon. Get as many voles as you could carry. Vole is Willow's favorite. Go!" My feet padded the ground. The moor is past the Twolegplace and through the woods. Or you could cross the river for a short cut. But I like going through the Twolegplace. The wind was fresh in my paws. When I reached the Twolegplace, my nose was matted with different smells. One smelled familiar. Something familiar. I walked towards that scent, forgetting about the vole expedition. It was hard because every scent was mixed together. A den, then a monster… When the scent stopped, I was next to a black and white tom and two reddish toms. "Who are you?" the black and white tom growled. "Geez Lego, stop being aggressive to everyone you meet," a russety colored tom said. Lego grumbled to himself. "Uh… hello traveler. My name is… uh… Flame. He is Cinder," the other red tom said. I knew what the scent was, all of the sudden. "Do you know anyone named Willow?" I asked genuinely. "Well there is a kittypet named Willow next door…" Lego replied. "Not a kittypet, Lego," Cinders said. "Hey Flame, maybe it is time to… to… reveal who we are. We can't hide forever." "Fine. Hello, Withering Mist. Mission accomplished." They? They? "Why-" "Running away with Lego. Got a problem with it?" Flame said coolly. When nothing came out of my mouth, he said, "Good. You delayed us. We were going to be in the forest by midnight. Let's go." I couldn't leave them. But I couldn't leave Willow. I was torn by the loyalty to my littermates and my mother. This might be a horrible choice but I ran up to them. "I want… want… to go with you!" "Another mouth to feed. Great," Lego grumbled. "We can let her," Cinders said defensively. "No we can't. She is just another mouth to feed. I can fish, you can hunt, Lego is our guide. She can do both fishing and hunting. Nothing new," Small Flame added. Actually, Mist can also the fastest, for your information. She can catch the fastest prey. "Yeah," Lego agreed. "But she is our littermate!" Dying Cinders protested. "She is soft, Cinders. She weeped after a pity kittypet's death! His name is Davis, I think," Flame retorted. Is it just me, or is Dying Cinders looking guilty? Anyways, Davis helped me. He was the only one who agreed with me. He agrees that parents are overprotective these days. They don't really know Davis. "We did a Good Bye party for Davis with the rough cats. But we renamed it the Good Riddance Party. Seems more like it. Davis was so fat, he couldn't even walk! We could have killed him and eaten his meat. He is that plump," Lego said, licking his lips. "Why can't we let Withering Mist in?" Dying Cinders asked. "Fine. We will. But one mistake, one cry, one wail, then I would kill you. Small Flame too," Lego snarled. Small Flame looked smaller now. Maybe he didn't want to kill me. But if he did back down, he would look weak. "Agreed," he growled. But his growl sounded more like a squeak. "We are going to Kestrel, by the way," Lego told me kindly, like nothing had happened. "Kestrel? I am fine with it." "Why can't we keep on moving?" "Fine, Small Flame. Let's go." c h a p t e r s i x : w i t h e r i n g m i s t Days past. We still hadn't gotten to the camp. But on the 5th day, we found it. "Come on! Come on! I see Pine and Kestrel! They are over… there!" Small Flame was tugging me towards them. I saw a faint outline of a light tabby and a gray tom. Two other figures were next to them. A black cat and a ginger tabby. "Lego! Come on! We found them!" Soon, we were running towards the cats. I swerved through the trees, eventually landing first. "Who are- oh! Greetings. What brings you here?" Kestrel obviously recognized us. Pine too. "Nameless, attack these trespassers!" But they didn't move. "As your second in command, I order you to attack!" Pine growled. "Alas Pine, I am a higher rank than you. They are waiting for my orders. Coal and Whittle, stay put. I know them, and they cause no harm. Other than that black and white one." Kestrel narrowed his eyes at Lego. "So, why are you here?" "We want to join you!" I blurted out. "New rookies? You need to prove you can be one… living in Nameless isn't easy," Kestrel warned. "What is Nameless?" Dying Cinders asked. "Let me explain." "You know that there was 4 clans. Well, badgers and foxes overran their home. It was about a moon after Rain left. He was lucky. Two leaders were killed, Swampstar of ShadowClan and Reedstar of RiverClan. The survivors rounded up and decided to go on a huge journey. A huge journey to find a new home. Seven cats died on the journey.…" Kestrel "We need to go now! Before they kill us all!" Owlstar of WindClan shouted. "We must leave!" It was the Gathering but all the survivors rounded up in this particular gathering. The two deputies of RiverClan and ShadowClan, Deerpool and Tumblefur, glanced warily at the leader. I realized that the Moonpool was destroyed already. They couldn't get their leader lives. And they were in charge of their clans. My father, Raggedrain was close to me, his old eyes glazed with memories. My clan's leader, Stonestar yowled, "We must leave! Deerpool and Tumblefur will be in charge of their clans! But one thing is positive. We must leave!" The cats cheered below him. I was confused. Leave? They already left the first time, the a Great Journey. And this might be the Last Journey. "Excuse me, Deerpool? May I speak?" A solid colored gray she cat spoke up from the RiverClan section. "Yes Iciclefur," Deerpool replied. "Well, me, Greyfeather and Stormheart want to be kittypets. When you… you… were searching for food that wasn't reeked of badger scent, we borrowed food from the house folk. I want to be with them with Greyfeather and Stormheart." Deerpool narrowed her eyes, the cleared her throat. "Yes, you may leave. Take any traitor with you and leave. Don't see my face again," she retorted. My father, next to me rose up and grumbled, "As I don't want to be a kittypet, I feel like my bones are too old for this…" "Yes you may, and you can be traitors." My heart aches as I saw my father get up and leave. "ThunderClan had decided that we are all going to be loners," Stonestar announced. "As much as I want to leave, my clan is weakened. I am staying here. Kestrelwing and some others want to leave." My name. My name was announced in the Gathering. "ShadowClan would accept them," Tumblefur replied. "On one condition. If the party is greater than five, I wouldn't accept." "Only three," Stonestar said. "Fine." ---- "But they never found their home. They were trapped by Twolegs and such. The survivors made a camp. Here. We call it Nameless. We get some kittypets to join and loners as well, if they can put up with it. It is based on the clans. I am the leader. Pine is the second in command. Little Deer is my sister and the healer," Kestrel finished. "Oh." "If you want to join, what is the harm? Come on!" Dying Cinders tugged on me. This was my future. End of Episode 1 Category:Shooting Midnight's Stories